Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Apartment Hunting

Early last week we
started our search for an apartment (of “flat”) in Stellenbosch, the college
town outside of Cape Town where David will be studying.We thought we would have plenty to choose
from since school doesn’t start for another two or three weeks but we soon
learned that all the “good” flats are rented out in early December and the
selection available now in the middle of January might be a little limited. The
other limiting factor of our search is that we were looking for a furnished
apartment. The real estate agents looked at us like we must be crazy to expect
to find a furnished apartment this late in the game!

On Day 1 of our search we
did find a furnished apartment just across the (busy) street from campus. It
was a small, one bedroom apartment with one twin bed. Let’s just say it would
have been quite a “cozy” year for the two of us. There was nothing spectacular
about that apartment but it was clean and we felt like, if we had to, we could
make it work. But we wanted to keep
looking.We came back to our host
family’s home a little discouraged and exhausted after our first day of
searching.

Day 2 of our apartment
hunt started out just as discouraging with a couple of no-go apartment viewings
and more real estate agents telling us they had nothing available that fit our
criteria. Gavin, our host sponsor, and I stopped for a cup of coffee to try and
figure out where to go next while David walked around hoping to find a “For
Rent” sign on anything close by. He didn’t find an apartment but he did find
another real estate agent who had a two bedroom furnished apartment for rent in
Bosman’s Crossing. We came out to view it and fell in love within the first
couple of minutes. It’s a little further out from campus and central
Stellenbosch but we feel like we found the hidden gem that we were looking for.

The exposed brick walls
give this flat a loft feel and the modern furniture was a great surprise. The
apartment came with a lot of the necessities like furniture, appliances,
dishes, pots and pans but there are still a few things we would like to pick up
to make it feel a little more homey.

Bosman’s Crossing is a
mixed-use development with commercial businesses, such as architecture firms,
interior designers, and a little pastry shop that smells divine, on the ground
floor and three floors of flats above. Just down the road is a wonderful
Saturday Market with great crafts, clothes, fruits and vegetables and lots of
great food available for breakfast or lunch.

Now that we have our
space, y’all come see us! We can’t wait to show you around!

3 comments:

You were so lucky you found the apartment that fits to your liking. It was a good thing you didn’t stop looking, despite the discouraging words and experience that you've had. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have discovered this beautiful flat. Cheers!